The Latest: California town gathers, prays after shooting

Dozens of people from a tiny Northern California community came out despite rain and cold to honor the victims of a gunman who killed five people and injured several more.

Twelve clergy members led prayers at the Wednesday night gathering, including some for Alejandro Hernandez, a 6-year-old student who suffered the most serious injuries at an elementary school the gunman tried to enter.

His aunt, Rosa A. Monroy, said he's at a hospital in Sacramento awaiting surgery on his foot. It's not clear when they will operate on the more serious wound to his upper chest and right arm, she said.

A teacher at the school, Jennifer Bauman, said at the vigil that in some ways it was the worst day of her life, but she was inspired by the courage of her first- and second-grade students.

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5:55 p.m.

Six-year-old Aileen Favela says she didn't know what was happening when a boy yelled at her to "get down."

She was in her classroom at Rancho Tehama Elementary School with about 15 first- and second-graders when shots came through the window Tuesday during a shooting rampage by 44-year-old Kevin Neal in a small Northern California community.

Officials say quick-thinking school personnel saved dozens of kids from the deadly shooting.

Aileen says she ducked under her desk as she heard "a lot" of shots. She says she thought somebody was trying to get into the school to kill people.

She has a small cut above her left eye where she was hit by flying glass from bullets that hit her classroom during the shootings. Her mother, Olivia Favela, says she is OK.

Aileen says she was worried about her brother during the shooting. Both are afraid to go to school now.

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5:30 p.m.

Prosecutors say a Northern California man who went on a shooting rampage had harassed two neighbors after being released from jail on accusations he attacked them with a gun and knife.

Tehama County District Attorney Gregg Cohen said Wednesday that Kevin Neal repeatedly called state fire officials to report his neighbors were making methamphetamine after he was released on bail in early February.

Cohen said the two women were scared of Neal after the January attack. The sheriff's department says Cohen fatally shot one of the women Tuesday during his rampage that left four others dead, including his wife.

Police shot and killed Neal.

Cohen also says Neal was arrested in North Carolina and California five times between 1989 and January 2017 but was never convicted.

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3:45 p.m.

The superintendent of a small Northern California school said years of practicing lockdowns paid off when a gunman on a killing rampage charged on to school grounds.

Corning Union Elementary School District Superintendent Richard Fitzpatrick said Wednesday the drill went exactly as practiced.

He said many more children could have been hurt or killed after Kevin Neal started shooting at classrooms and the school office. One child was hospitalized with gunshot wounds and is expected to survive.

He said details of the lockdown process are confidential, but it was carried out in less than two minutes.

A district custodian said Neal tried repeatedly to get into a kindergarten classroom before giving up.

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2:25 p.m.

The head of the maintenance department for a Northern California school district says a heroic custodian rushed straggling kids inside before a gunman could reach them, yelling "get into the classrooms."

Randy Morehouse with the Corning Union Elementary School District says the gunman tried repeatedly to get into a kindergarten classroom and fired into the room before he ran off to reload.

Morehouse described a harrowing scene as he walked around the playground at Rancho Tehama Elementary School.

Some windows of tan portables were boarded up Wednesday, a day after Kevin Janson Neal shot up the elementary school, which has about 100 students in kindergarten to fifth grade.

Two officers shot and killed Neal.

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1:30 p.m.

Hospital officials say five people shot during a gunman's deadly rampage on a tiny Northern California town remain hospitalized.

Authorities say Kevin Janson Neal wounded at least 10 people and killed five others, including his wife, in several shootings in Rancho Tehama Reserve, a tiny town north of Sacramento.

Officials say two men remain hospitalized at Enloe Medical Center in Chico. Two other men are being treated in Mercy Medical Center in Redding.

A hospital official says a child who was shot at the community's school is in fair condition at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.

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12:50 p.m.

An attorney who used to represent the Northern California man who went on a deadly shooting rampage says he was fired several weeks ago after his client began displaying "bizarre behavior."

Barone says he first represented Neal several years ago in a road-rage case that prosecutors dropped before it went to trial.

Barone also represented Neal in February when a judge barred him from having guns after he was charged with stabbing a neighbor.

The attorney said Neal should have been unable to legally purchase guns because of the court order.

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12:50 p.m.

Authorities say there would have been "a horrific bloodbath" at a Northern California elementary school if not for the quick action of workers who rushed children inside and locked the doors as a gunman opened fire.

Tehama County Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston said Wednesday that not being able to enter Rancho Tehama Elementary frustrated Kevin Janson Neal and drove him to find victims elsewhere.

He killed five people and wounded 10 at different locations around the rural community of Rancho Tehama Reserve before police fatally shot him.

Some students had finished breakfast while others were being dropped off when Neal started shooting. One child was wounded at the school and another who was on the way.

The school, which has about 100 children in kindergarten through fifth grade, will be closed until further notice.

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11:55 a.m.

A judge had barred the Northern California man who went on a deadly shooting rampage from having guns after he was charged with stabbing a woman earlier this year.

Court records also show that Kevin Neal was charged with illegally firing a weapon and possessing an illegal assault rifle on Jan. 31. The 44-year-old was charged with five felonies and two misdemeanors.

The court records show a judge ordering Neal to stay away from the woman who was stabbed and her mother-in-law on Feb. 28. As part of that protective order, Neal was barred from having guns.

Tehama County Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston said Wednesday that police went to Neal's home several times for reports that he was shooting guns, but they never saw him with the weapons.

He says Neal had two homemade semi-automatic weapons and two handguns registered in someone else's name.

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11:20 a.m.

Authorities say no one reported a domestic violence incident that they believe set a man off on a shooting rampage in Northern California that left five people dead.

Tehama County Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston says neighbors heard a disturbance at the home of Kevin Janson Neal on Monday night but that no one called authorities.

He says investigators found the body of Neal's wife hidden under the floor.

Neal on Tuesday opened fire at different places in the tiny community of Rancho Tehama Reserve, at one point entering a school and shooting into classrooms.

A child was wounded at the school. Nine other people also were hurt.

Police later shot and killed Neal.

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10:30 a.m.

Authorities say the wife of a gunman who went on a shooting rampage in a Northern California town was found dead inside their home.

Tehama County Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston says investigators found the body of Kevin Janson Neal's wife hidden under the floor. Investigators believe the killing of his wife was the start of the rampage.

Authorities say Neal shot and killed four other people and wounded 10 others at different locations around the rural community of Rancho Tehama Reserve. Police later shot and killed him.

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12:01 a.m.

The gunman behind a rampage in Northern California was out on bail after being charged with stabbing a neighbor and had been the subject of a domestic violence call the day before.

Neighbors also said they repeatedly reported to police that he had been firing off hundreds of rounds of ammunition day and night.

Yet Kevin Neal was free and able to use a semi-automatic rifle and two handguns Tuesday to shoot 14 people, killing four, before he died in a shootout with police.

Police have declined to identify the shooter but confirmed the same man was charged with the stabbing in January. The district attorney told the Sacramento Bee the man in that case is Kevin Neal.